Let Your Light Shine

Jesus said in Matthew 5:14 that we Christians "are the light of the world."  It is exactly what He said about Himself in John 8:12.  It is interesting that Jesus presupposes the darkness of the world.  As we 21st century American Christians wait with labored breath and faithful prayers for our Supreme Court's decision on marriage in this country, it is encouraging to remember Jesus' words.  He knows the world is a dark place and needs us.  It may get darker in the next couple of weeks.  It is already dark.  So let us shine.  Our country may redefine marriage.  But it cannot redefine us.  We are the light of the world.

Benjamin Franklin and Christian Faith

I recently came across a letter from one of our nation’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin.  It was written to the President of Yale College, Ezra Stiles.  Stiles was quite a fan of Franklin, especially as a scientist, and Franklin had given the college some scientific equipment and a few antiquities.   I’m not enough of a Franklin expert to know if it was his last letter, but it would certainly be among the last.  Dated March 9, 1790, Franklin would be dead within six weeks.

In fact, Franklin seems all too aware to his approaching finitude, cautioning Stiles, who wanted to honor Franklin at Yale with a portrait:

You have an excellent Artist lately arrived. If he will undertake to make one for you, I shall chearfully pay the Expence: But he must not long delay setting about it, or I may slip thro' his Fingers, for I am now in my 85th Year's and very infirm.

In the letter Franklin makes two statements I wish to comment upon.  The first:

“You desire to know something of my Religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it: But I do not take your Curiosity amiss, and shall endeavour in a few Words to gratify it.

I had to wonder whether Franklin was accurate in his memory or whether previous inquires went forgotten.  Franklin is now 85 years of age.  Is this really the first time he has been questioned about his religion?  What a tragic reproach upon Christians.  I realize Christians of the colonial era, were not, for the most part, highly evangelistic and much too intellectual.  I know there were  exceptions like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards.  Still, no one had taken Franklin to task about what we believe is the most important part of man—his eternal soul?

And Ezra Stiles?  He was a Congregational minister and a New Englander (Connecticut and Rhode Island) who may never have meet the Pennsylvanian Franklin in person.  Yet, they clearly had many correspondences.  At least Stiles finally got around to asking the key question. 

So maybe we modern evangelicals can walk away with two lessons here.   First, make sure our values match our priorities.  If we really value the souls of mankind, let’s have that conversation before we talk about contemporary events.  Sports, weather, hobbies, and families all make for enriching  and non-threatening conversations, but we shouldn’t be treating faith as an after-thought.  Second, it’s never too late to have that conversation with people in our lives.  I know ‘religion’ makes people uncomfortable and I like putting people at ease, so it’s easy to avoid it.  But I, and millions of other evangelicals, need to get over it.  Have that conversation with the people in your life.  Today.

The second statement Franklin made in his letter was about Jesus:

 As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his Divinity: tho' it is a Question I do not dogmatise upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble.

Again, where were Franklin’s spiritual friends, elevating the need for him to “busy” himself with thoughts of Jesus?  Why did they let him get away with so casually dismissing the need to contemplate Jesus.  Franklin had previously stated he believed in God.  But his belief in God promoted only a moralism…a doing good to others.  He never saw himself as one who was a sinner…a rebel against the holiness of God in desperate need of the saving work of Jesus.  In Franklin’s view, Jesus was a good teacher and he didn’t need to take the time to figure out if that was all Jesus was.

Benjamin Franklin.  Patriot.  Founder. Witty and brilliant; wise and helpful;  inquisitive and experimental.  He left the world a better place.  But he never properly answered life’s singularly most important question—Who is Jesus?

Have you?

 

Post-Christmas, Pre-New Year

God is glorious. While Christmas 2010 has passed without my adding any insights to cyberspace, I would want to offer this simple adage...God is glorious. If Christmas is about anything, it is that God makes all things right…in His time. Yes, Jesus was birthed into this world… “the Word became flesh” in the words of John. That’s why we’ve celebrated and continue to celebrate December 25th. Jesus, the Savior is born! But it would be some decades between His arrival and the moment His innocent blood would be shed, effectively reconciling sinful man to our holy God. His birth was only the beginning, the starting point of a life that would be offered. The message of “peace on earth” gloriously heralded by a “multitude of the heavenly host” could only be achieved at Golgotha, some thirty years later. But it was achieved…all in God’s timing. And there is much more that will be achieved…all in God’s timing.

The Cross of Jesus

The cross is necessary because there is nothing we could ever do to merit the forgiveness of God. But Jesus has done it. He has done something so wonderful and precious, that we sinners can be reconciled to God. Jesus was a perfect sacrifice. He fulfilled the demands of the law. He absorbed the punishing wrath of God.

So we can trust in ourselves; in our merit; in our righteousness and by our own works and be judged by those. Or we can trust in Jesus. We can rely on His merit; on His righteousness and in His work on Calvary’s cross. The former trust will let us down and send us to hell. The latter trust will take us to God’s grace and safely deliver us to heaven.

Augustine, the 5th century bishop of Hippo, preached a sermon entitled “Let Us Too Glory In the Cross of the Lord.” Here’s one excerpt:

The death of the Lord our God should not be a cause of shame for us; rather, it should be our greatest hope, our greatest glory. In taking upon himself the death that he found in us, he has most faithfully promised to give us life in him, such as we cannot have of ourselves. He loved us so much that, sinless himself, he suffered for us sinners the punishment we deserved for our sins. How then can he fail to give us the reward we deserve for our righteousness, for he is the source of righteousness? How can he, whose promises are true, fail to reward the saints when he bore the punishment of sinners, though without sin himself?

Brethren, let us then fearlessly acknowledge, and even openly proclaim, that Christ was crucified for us; let us confess it, not in fear but in joy, not in shame but in glory.

The apostle Paul saw Christ, and extolled his claim to glory. He had many great and inspired things to say about Christ, but he did not say that he boasted in Christ's wonderful works: in creating the world, since he was God with the Father, or in ruling the world, though he was also a man like us. Rather, he said: Let me not boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I hope you know the power of His cross. This is truly Good Friday. Good for all sinners whose sins are washed away by His blood. Good for me, for I have believed in Him—therefore I “will not perish but have everlasting life.”